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Graham Nash

"Songs for Beginners"

Atlantic/Rhino

A sweet, high-voiced simplicity pervades "Songs for Beginners." Newly remastered, the 1971 album marked the solo debut of the "nice" member of Crosby, Stills & Nash. They say nice guys finish last, however, and the focus of "Beginners" is a trio of songs—"Simple Man," "I Used to Be a King," and "Better Days"—inspired by the British expatriate’s breakup with Joni Mitchell.

"Beginners" was recorded in San Francisco with guests including Jerry Garcia, who adds weeping pedal steel-guitar lines to "King," and Rita Coolidge, who plays piano and sings on Nash’s critique of rock stardom, "There’s Only One." A DVD containing a souped-up 5.1 surround-sound version, along with a photo gallery, an interview, and a short film focusing on Nash’s photography, accompanies the economical 34-minute album.

Roy Orbison

"The Soul of Rock and Roll"

Monument/Orbison/Legacy

 Roy Orbison’s intimate yet powerful voice made him the Enrico Caruso of rock ’n’ roll, and this four-CD, 107-track retrospective seems barely large enough to contain his singing and songwriting talent.

As is often the case with such mammoth undertakings, the early rarities—including a previously unreleased, 1956 version of "Ooby Dooby," played with his first band, the Teen Kings; a rocking, nine-minute "Guitar-Pull Medley"; and a handful of demos—make disc one the reason to buy in.

Discs two and three contain the hits Orbison wrote and recorded so prolifically until his stock declined during the ’70s. And disc four documents Orbison’s "second" career in the ’80s, when movies such as "Pretty Woman" and "Blue Velvet," and a stint with the Traveling Wilburys, brought him back as one of the few vital touchstones of rock’s Southern origins. That reborn career only ended with Orbison’s untimely demise in 1988 at age 52.